Dining and Shopping

Melbourne restaurants

Dining out in this foodie town is serious – and seriously fun. Melbourne prides itself on its food and the city’s dizzying array of dining options is testimony to its culinary reputation. Book ahead for award-winning fine-dining restaurants, queue up for iconic cheap eats, explore famous eat streets or track down the city’s best food trucks. Whatever you do, come to town with an appetite. Below we have selected for you some of the melbourninan’s favourite and bespoken restaurants in the city. For more food & wine local and regional options you may visit www.visitmelbourne.com

Ezard

Chef Teage Ezard combines the East and the West with verve and creativity, making this two hatted restaurant a must try for any visiting gourmand.

Flower Drum

Invent a special occasion to get yourself to Flower Drum and dig into the novel Cantonese fare that garnered three more hats in The Age Good Food Guide.

Grossi Florentino

Winner of two hats from The Age Good Food Guide, Guy Grossi has created a menu that is quintessentially Italian but incredibly innovative.

Il Bacaro

Hatted by The Age Good Food Guide, Il Bacaro’s the kind of the place that could have opened last week or ten years ago, which it did.

Longrain

With their innovative take on aromatic Thai cuisine, Longrain has become a Melbourne favourite and been hatted by The Age Good Food Guide.

The European

Scramble for an adjective to describe Melbourne’s stalwart wine bar and you’ll end up settling on ‘European’, before you settle on one more glass.

MoVida Aqui

Journey to the literal fire at the heart of MoVida and sample the Spanish love of cooking over coals, or a la plancha. Bring your mates for a banquet.

Vue de Monde

Climb to level 55 of Melbourne’s Rialto tower and find out why Vue De Monde consistently scores three hats from The Age Good Food Guide.

Cumulus Inc.

This loft-inspired restaurant, hatted by The Age Good Food Guide boasts a drinking bar, an eating bar and regular tables for serious eating.

The Press Club

Treat yourself to head chef Luke Croston’s elegant degustation menu or go all out with the experimental Press Club Projects private dining experience.

Shopping around the city and the suburbs

Shopping in Melbourne always comes with added extras, with laneway discoveries and cafe culture as much a part of the experience as the loot from local designers and the best of international brands.

Ever-evolving shopping choices make it possible to create a different shopping spree every time you venture out.

The city’s passion for fashion is a serious matter, a fact not overlooked by international retail giants looking to establish Australian outposts, and local designers keen on getting a strong start.

Emporium Melbourne

Be assured of the best of the best at Emporium Melbourne, the city’s see-it-to-believe-it, one-stop, super stylish, cutting edge shopping mecca.

Melbourne’s GPO

Step off busy Bourke Street into a calmer space at Melbourne’s GPO. Sunny steps, colonnades and cafes wrap around Australia’s very first H&M store.

Brunswick

Pull up a milk crate and hop from one newly-opened café to another new bar, grabbing trendy truck tucker to sate the appetite and inspire creativity.

Men’s fashion

Men in Melbourne are coiffed, coutured and well turned out thanks to a growing selection of gentlemen’s outfitters and all-round sartorial saviours.